Free Republic

As she sweeps up broken glass outside her shop, Inna knows her country’s future is in the hands of Americans voting more than 5,000 miles away. “We hope that the woman, Kamala Harris, will win and support us,” she says. “Of course we are worried about the outcome [of the election],” she adds. “We want to defeat the enemy!” For Ukraine to have a remote chance of doing that, it needs the help of the US. It was here in 2023, on this south-eastern part of the front line, where Ukraine launched a counteroffensive it hoped would force out the...

“He’s doomed to not be loved!” Never was there a more clear-cut case of “commentator’s curse” than when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was inaugurated on a sunny Kyiv day exactly five years ago. The TV narrator’s inference was that, after a landslide election victory with 73% of the vote, it could only go downhill for him. While his approval ratings have inevitably waned, Volodymyr Zelensky has been able to use his enduring appeal, along with a desire for stability, to extend his term in office. In peacetime it would have expired, and an election would have been called. But the...

Ukraine is struggling to meet its demand for soldiers. Volunteers aren't enough. The country constantly needs to replace the tens of thousands who've been killed or injured. Many more are just exhausted, after 18 months fighting off Russia's full-scale invasion. Some men though don't want to fight. Thousands have left the country, sometimes after bribing officials, and others are finding ways of dodging recruitment officers, who in turn have been accused of increasingly heavy-handed tactics. "The system is very outdated," says Yehor. He watched his father suffer from mental health issues after fighting with the Soviet Army in Afghanistan. It's...

At least 23 people have been killed and dozens more injured in a Russian rocket strike on a humanitarian convoy in south Ukraine, local officials say. A huge crater next to a row of vehicles in the city of Zaporizhzhia testifies to the violence of the attack. Windows and windscreens were smashed in. The BBC saw half a dozen bodies lying at the scene, apparently civilians. Baggage and coats strewed the tarmac. One survivor told the BBC her boss had been killed in the attack. "She had two kids. I left the cafe to use the restroom when it happened....